Linlted etro lumher dealers cautious ahout social media

SOME industries are filled with L)"early adopters"-companies and individuals obsessed with embracing the latest technology. The lumber industry is not among them.

So it has been no surprise that as the "social networking" craze snowballs into Twittery hysterics, the average LBM company has turned a deaf ear. Indeed, in a Merchant Magazine search among 50 randomly selected LBM dealers only seven (l4%o) had a Facebook presence. In a tough market, dealers figure they have better things to do than to troll for friends on the computer.

Yet there's never been a better time for your company to get started in social media. It's easy and inexpen- sive to get started (depending how much time you devote to it). It can help promote your brand, drive more traffic to your website, and provide useful information for your customers. And, best of all, its core is the same as the lumber business's-communicating with and strengthening bonds within a specifically defined community. It's about relationships.

While you won't find a large percentage of LBM companies using social networking sites, you will find a huge number of customers and prospects. According to Corporate Logo MagaTine, more than 50Vo of Americans now have a Facebook page, and Facebook has more than 200 million active users-and its greatest growth isn't in penniless college kids, but in adults aged 35-49. Linkedln is the second-largest social media platform with more than 39 million professionals. Twitter has more than 14 million unique visitors and receives over 2 million "tweets" per day. About 5,000 small businesses join Twitter every day.

"We dipped our toe into social media by signing onto Twitter for the very first time two months ago," said Scott Thomas, director of marketing for distributor Parksite. Batavia. Il. "We were encouraged to find many like-minded businesses in our industry: builders, fabricators, lumberyards, architects and suppliers. We were intrigued and impressed with what our business associates were tweeting about. Today's marketing is about being helpful, not intrusive, and putting constructive information in the places where people go to find it."

Hibbert Lumber, Davis, Ca., started tweeting in July to alert its customers, every one to two weeks, with details of its latest sale. During August, Niece Lumber, Lambertville, N.J., was able to compile 57 followers to its Twitter feed through succinct, almost-daily comments and links to industry-related articles.

The new technologies are an easy entry point for updating a stodgy image. K&K True Value Hardware, Bettendorf, Ia., has been using Facebook since March to target "a younger customer through cheap advertising," said store manager Casey Keller. "I add new videos, photos, and try new things that I hear about, such as linking our page to community pages and vendors. Our marketing director adds new flyers and or coupons to the site. I have a few employees who have posted random things."

Cape May Lumber Co., W. Cape May, N.J., started on Facebook in

August, hoping to channel visitors to its website. "We are one of the few local lumberyards to have a website, and have visitors every day," said Tony Simon, MIS/IT manager. "We like the attraction of our website for new and existing customers. On occasion, we will get a call from someone saying, 'I didn't know you had this....' and more often it will be a longtime customer."

Yet customers must visit a company's website to view ad messages posted there. Posts on Facebook and Twitter go directly to your intended audience, with the possibility of popping up on their friends' sites, and their friends' friends' sites, and so on. It's a ripple effect.

Celina Lumber, Celina, Tn., began on Facebook and MySpace in May. According to sales rep Leigh Shaull, "Our goal is to reach a larger audience than we could reach under normal circumstances, and the fact that the service is free helps tremendously. We are located in a small county, but have many tourists because of our lake. These people are usually unfamiliar with the county, but familiar with the Internet. Our hope is that they will find our pages based on many keywords we have used in our descriptions."

Shaull added, "Our other goal is to advertise to our friends about upcoming sales and promotions, who might tell their friends and so forth. We usually try to post something two to three times a week, but we don't want to overload with new prices and such in case competition is checking out the page as well."

Facebook Frustnations

For Miller Wholesale Lumber. Tempe, Az., "the goal in using Facebook is to get our name out there and hopefully generate business," said Melissa Beaudoin. "It's also to provide more interaction with our customers or potential customers."

Beaudoin has come to realize, however, not to expect a flood of traffic from her company's contractorcustomer base. Building a community takes time. "Most of our customers are out on the jobsites, not sitting at desks playing on Facebook all day," she said. "The last post that I made was to announce a contest we are running, and thus far no one has responded. So that tends to be a little disheartening."

As well, Beaudoin added of Miller's two-month-old presence, "it is difficult to come up with good topics to post on the page. I don't think 'another slow day at the lumberyard' is quite appropriate... despite the way the market is."

Nonetheless, posting just for the sake of posting. without saying anything, is worse. Beseiged with an endless torrent of "Looking forward to a great morning!"s and "Just had a deli-

$weet Trareets

SiMaris Corp.'s logistics team is using Twitter to find available truckers to handle their loads, The wholesaler has an online load board that truckers can book loads from, and every time a logistics team member submits a load to the board it sends a tweet to registered followers.

Around 80 truckers are signed up.

0ne of their followers recently remarked, "lt's great sitting in a truck stop having coffee while searching the load boards and suddenly receiving a tweet for a load that's only 20 miles away!"

HOME DEPOT'S Facebook page, designed to promote its in-store workshops, has nearly 9,000 fans.